by C.T. Millis
Chapter 9
The clerk did not even look up from the magazine he was flipping through until after James left. He looked around only after the bell above the door chimed; he turned another page, and brought his wiry fingers up to the side of his face where a colony of pimples established themselves. He was thin and his stooped shoulders that concaved inwards towards his chest like a cheap plastic swing set bowing under the weight of an adult. His pale scrawny arms lifted each page of the magazine and set it down on the opposing side, slowly.
When he knew he was alone, he looked up into the security mirror. It was round and as wide as the lid of a trash can. The fish-eye effect made most of the small convenience store visible, but pushed the clerk standing at the counter to the edge of it, squishing him nearly out of existence. He was almost invisible.
The phone rang.
"Syderski's Gas and Stop." he paused to listen. "No, Trevor isn't here- I think. . . I think you have the wrong number." The clerk hung up after the person on the other line set their phone on the cradle. No apology. He looked around the store. His eyes trekked back to the security mirror. He could hear a cooling fan turn itself on in the back, no doubt lightening the load of heat on one of the machines that kept the small desolate Syderski's Gas and Stop in business.
A car pulled up to one of the pumps outside. A career woman in her mid-thirties got out and lifted the nozzle. He pressed the intercom button near the cash register.
"You'll have to prepay,” She looked confused. “I’m sorry ma’am” The woman looked at the other, empty pumps, and clicked her high heels into the store. She looked at him before digging through her purse. "Sure is nice to see snow this winter," he said. She didn't even nod. She pulled out a twenty, and a few bills, a quarter, and set it down casually on the counter between them.
"That much-" and she went back outside without ever looking at him again. He picked up the change from the counter and could almost feel the electrical warmth of the other human being who just held it. He calculated the money into the system so she could pump her gas, and sorted the money into the correct bins. He ran his forefinger and thumb over his eyebrows before returning to his magazine.